Ericka Van Helsing
Ericka Van Helsing was the captain of the luxury cruise ship, the Legacy, and the great-granddaughter of the famed monster hunter, Abraham Van Helsing. She was the secondary antagonist, in Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation. As of the film's conclusion, she is now a protagonist and Count Dracula's fiancée. Official Profile Physical Appearance Ericka has short, curly platinum blonde hair and blue eyes. She wears a white captain's suit with gold buttons, pink lipstick, gold earrings, and has red polished nails. Personality Ericka is charming and flirtatious towards those she meets, and dazzles passengers with her charismatic and fun demeanor. She easily hides any ill-intentions she has towards Dracula, and all monsters, with a fluttering laugh and an innocent smile. Despite being very goal-oriented and loyal to her bloodline, Ericka is shown to be impatient, narcissistic, and hot-headed enough that she would jeopardize her great-grandfather's 120-year-long plan to kill Dracula, just so that she could have the chance to do him in herself. She is prone to physical tantrums and sulking when she does not get her way. After warming up to Drac, Ericka shows a much softer side of her personality. She is tentative to share about her dissatisfaction of being pushed into becoming a captain, and is genuinely concerned when Drac shares that he was a widower and single-father. 'Early Life' Ericka never knew her parents and was instead raised by her great-grandfather, Abraham Van Helsing. Ericka spent most if not all of her life, living aboard the Legacy. During this time, she was taught by her great-grandfather to hate monsters. Inspired by her family's legacy, Ericka was determined to succeed where her great-grandfather had failed, and finally destroy Dracula. ''Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation 'First Appearance' Ericka first appears by leaping off of a high ledge and doing acrobatics in front of the crowd. She lands on the Crow's nest and happily welcomes the monsters in multiple different languages. She slides down onto the deck and finished her introduction, then continues greeting passengers. She waves hello to other monsters before she notices Dracula staring at her, then walks directly toward him. She is very flirtatious with him, and believes his babbling to be him speaking in Transylvanian. She attempts to copy what he says until Frank intervenes. After the Pack hurry Dracula away, Ericka greets more monsters as she travels across the deck. She uses a secret passageway that leads deep into the bowels of the ship, and enters a room at the end of a walkway. Once inside she drops her cheerful smile and scowls at a portrait of Abraham Van Helsing, expression her disgust to him about the monster on board. Van Helsing appears from the shadows, much older looking, and agrees with her. Ericka confirms that Dracula is one of the passengers, and then appears bored listening to her great-grandfather's plan about obtaining the Instrument of Destruction. She is impatient and tries to convince him to abandon the plan and let her handle Drac by herself, but he shuts her down. She is forced to promise him that she will not to kill Dracula and his family. But after Van Helsing suddenly falls asleep, Ericka smiles and says that she won't try'' to kill Dracula, she will ''kill Dracula. 'The Cantina' After several failed attempts at killing Dracula, Ericka overhears him speaking with his friends about possibly asking her out on a date. She decides it's the perfect opportunity to get him alone, and makes her presence known to the group. Despite Drac's immensely awkward attempt at asking her out, Ericka agrees with a smile. She makes a show of closing his mouth and coyly telling him, "Cantina. Midnight. Don't be late.", before walking away confidently. At the restaurant, Ericka is pleasantly surprised when Drac compliments her outfit and pulls out her seat for her. When she's asked about her last name, she panics until the waiter brings chips and guacamole, which she uses to redirect the conversation. After distracting Drac, she pours garlic oil over the guacamole, which she believes to be deadly for vampires. She makes sure Drac gets as must as possible by hand-feeding him a literal mouthful of chips. Unfortunately for her, garlic is not fatal to vampires, and Drac toots instead of dropping dead. Ericka is unhappy with her newest failed attempt on his life, and sulks on her side of the table until Dracula apologizes. He confesses that he is very nervous, as he hasn't had a date since his wife died. Ericka is curious and concerned, and asks how old Mavis was at the time. Dracula tells her that Mavis was only an infant, and that he raised her the best he could as a single father. This strikes a chord with Ericka, and she reveals that she never knew either of her parents, and was raised solely by her great-grandfather. She tells him that she was brought up on board the ship, and expresses some dissatisfaction that her career as a captain was decided for her. Drac reassures her that he understands, but while family is important and that they must honor the past, that they still make their own futures. Drac's words are comforting to Ericka, and she begins to see him in a different light. Both begin to lean over the table, but before they can kiss, Mavis interrupts them angrily. Ericka watches Drac attempt to explain himself, before excusing herself to avoid the awkward situation. The following morning, Ericka is walking around the ship sulking about her conflicted feelings for Dracula. She is caught by Van Helsing, and attempts to lie about her whereabouts all evening, but her outfit gives her away. He scolds her for risking the safety of the Legacy, and insists that his plan will end Dracula and all monsters once and for all. Their conversation is overheard by Wayne and Wanda, and after Van Helsing darts them with tranquilizers, Ericka forces them down one of the exhaust pipes. She carries them both to a closet and locks them inside. 'Atlantis' Upon arriving in Atlantis, Ericka is sent on her most important mission by Van Helsing; to obtain the Instrument of Destruction. She is easily able to sneak through the distracted crowd of gambling monsters by wearing a wide-brimmed hat and khaki jacket. She enters an area labeled off limits for construction, unaware that Dracula saw her and is following her into the ruins. Ericka follows her great-grandfather's instructions about all the secret passages, and arrives at an underground pool. She removes her clothes to reveal a white wet suit hidden underneath, and dives into an underwater passage inside a giant, semi-submerged stone nose. When she surfaces, she can see the artifact at the end of a massive stone staircase, being held between the thumb and index finger of a gigantic stone hand. In her excitement, Ericka fails to be aware of her surroundings, and trips a booby trapped stone, sending an axe flying right toward her unsuspecting head. Before it hits her, Dracula catches it and flings it away with ease. Ericka is shocked that he would save her life, but Drac is very nonchalant about it, saying they are all the same. Ericka frowns in guilt, but is quickly distracted from her feelings when she realizes she doesn't know why Drac is here at all. He lies, saying that vampires can tell the future, but Ericka smiles and doesn't appear to believe him. When Dracula asks her the same, she scrambles to make up an explanation that she's retrieving a family heirloom, and that she can handle herself from here. She immediately sets off another trap, and Drac again saves her from being split by an axe. Embarrassed, Ericka tries to laugh off her carelessness, asking him jokingly how many times he can save her life. When Drac replies with "I don't know, every time?", she decides to test how serious he is by jumping blindly into the next trap. Flames begin to erupt from the stone steps, but before she can be burned, Drac rushes to lift her, letting the fire burn him instead. This elates Ericka and she continues triggering booby traps all the way up the stairs. Dracula guilds her lovingly through them all in a tango, taking the brunt of all of the traps for her. By the time they reach the top, Drac is full of darts and arrows, and has several snakes latched onto his arms, but Ericka is unharmed. She finds his skill and loyalty to his promise incredible, and stares at him adoringly until he reminds her to get her family heirloom. Ericka scrambles up the stone statue and snags it, once more unintentionally setting off a trap, though this time it's every trap all at once. Ericka can only hold onto the Instrument of Destruction while Drac carries her as fast as he can away from the collapsing room and through the underwater passage again. They shoot out of the water and land safely on the sand surrounding the pool. Ericka smiles at him and they both laugh that he has an axe stuck in his head. She offers to remove it for him, but as she grabs hold of the handle, Mavis appears from behind a fallen column and gasps in horror, thinking that Ericka has attacked her father. Mavis grabs Ericka with magic and holds her up in the air, tightly enough that it actually causes Ericka pain. When Mavis refuses to release her, Drac confesses that he zinged with Ericka, which surprises Mavis enough to remove her hold on her. Ericka questions him about what a zing is, and Drac tries to explain it is similar to "love at first sight". Ericka is horrified and immediately rejects the idea, knowing that she would never be allowed to love a monster. She tells him as much, and hurriedly leaves with the artifact. 'Dance Party' Ericka returns to the ship to deliver the Instrument of Destruction to her great-grandfather, and hesitates with a sad sigh before opening the door. Her depressed mood goes unnoticed by Van Helsing, and she stares out into the open sadly ocean while he celebrates. She accompanies him to the dance party he organized as a trap for the monsters. At first Ericka remains hidden while Van Helsing announces himself to Dracula from the DJ booth, only appearing by his side meekly when he makes mention of her. She's too ashamed to look directly at Drac, but Van Helsing instructs her to tell the devastated count who she really is. After some hesitation, she confesses that her full name is Ericka Van Helsing, and she is Abraham Van Helsing's great-granddaughter. Ericka stutters, trying to explain further, but Van Helsing cuts her off and opens the Instrument of Destruction. She stands by as he plays the evil song inside of it, and brainwashes the Kraken to attack the crowd below. When the Kraken begins to crush Dracula, Ericka finally chooses to act. She cries "No!" and leaps from the DJ booth to begin running to Drac's aid. She flips onto one of the Kraken's leviathan tentacles and starts sprinting toward where Drac is being held, when Dennis instructs Tinkles to assist her. The giant dog chases after her and throws her onto his back, traveling up the tentacle much faster than she could. Ericka is happy for the help, and Tinkles gives her a boosted launch off his back toward the Kraken's face. She spins several times before double-kicking him in the eye. The pain from Ericka's attack surprises the Kraken and he releases Drac. Ericka rolls into a run on one of the other tentacles, then jumps to catch Dracula mid-air. She lands on her feet on another tentacle and skates down it, avoiding the other tentacles trying to grab them, until she leaps off an the pair roll toward a cliff edge. Ericka grabs onto the ledge and snatches Drac's wrist before he can fall into the water below. She calls out to Van Helsing, demanding that he stop the attack. She tells him that he's wrong about monsters, and that Dracula had actually saved her life. Ericka turns her attention back to Drac, who is still lifeless, and confesses to him completely; she explains that while she was trying to kill him before, she began to see how wrong her mentality was, and that she zinged with him too. Ericka's love confession wakes Drac from his unconscious state. When Van Helsing questions what a zing is, Ericka informs him confidently that it's a monster thing, and that he wouldn't understand. Van Helsing attacks them both when Dracula compares it to "true love", but they appear again, with Ericka proclaiming that it's time they "start a new legacy"—a ''monster-human legacy. Van Helsing strikes them with one of the Kraken's massive tentacles, and Ericka is pushed through the stone floor with Drac on top of her. Despite being dazed, this does not Beverly injure her, as she is seen dancing the Macarena with the rest of the crowd as Johnny and Dracula defeat Van Helsing. When Van Helsing falls from the cliff after his defeat, Ericka yells in distress, prompting Drac to catch him before he falls into the ocean. Ericka holds Drac's hand upon his return, and contently leans in closer to him while Tinkles aggressively licks her great-grandfather. She turns to face him and tells him that he's amazing. They look into each other's eyes, and this time Ericka's eyes visibly shine as she zings! 'Epilogue' Immediately after returning to the hotel, Ericka is seen sneaking around with a giddy Dracula. He leads her by hand through the lobby, up to the thirteenth floor, and onto the hotel roof. She teases him, calling him "sneaky pants", and asks if he's brought her up to the roof to suck her blood, "bleh-bleh-bleh!". Ericka is breathless when instead he asks her to marry him. She begins stammering nervously, similar to how Drac did when they first met. After all of their friends and family appear on the other side of the roof to ask what her answer is, she blurts out excitedly, "YES!", and the spider engagement ring jumps onto her finger. The monsters cheer while she and Drac share a romantic hug before Tinkles chases them off of the roof. Abilities * Enhanced Agility: Ericka possesses extraordinary agility, as she can traverse any kind of terrain with great skill and speed. She is comfortable leaping and flipping through the air, and can do so quite gracefully. * Enhanced Strength: Ericka is very strong, and can easily carry both Wayne and Wanda at the same time. She also carries and holds up Drac with no apparent effort. * Martial Arts: Ericka appears to be trained in hand-to-hand combat, which she attempts to show off to her great-grandfather as proof she can handle Dracula alone. Memorable Quotes "I could not be more happy to welcome you all to our first ever monster cruise!" "Don't worry great-grandfather. I won't 'try' to kill him, I will kill him." "Aww, what a cute family. What!? No it's not! Dracula bad! Dracula bad!" "The food here is to die for." '' "''I've got to be a little more careful. I mean, how many times can you save my life, right?" "No, I could never be with someone like you. I could never be with a monster!" "You can't do this! You're wrong about monsters! Dracula, he saved my life!" "I'm so sorry, Drac. I was trying to kill you this whole time, but then I realized how wrong I was, how wrong ALL of this is... and then... I zinged!" "It's time to start a new legacy!" "Oh why? Are you going to suck out my blood? Blah Blah Blah!" "I... woo-bi-dee-ba-doo-bee? I mean, I woo-be-do-bee-dee? ...YES!" Gallery Concept Art ht3_ericka_0037_enichols.jpg ConceptEricka.jpg ht3_cap090_db_sw_02.jpg ht3_vhl006_nm_sw_04.jpg 47476c651d4416ef9a59213e5812857e.jpg ht3_trq110_nm_sw_02.jpg ht3_trq125_nm_sw_02.jpg 37804094_2170494966541583_5525566071588782080_n.jpg ht3_ericka_0029c_ckellman.jpg ht3_ericka_0029g_ckellman.jpg ht3_ericka_0029i_ckellman.jpg ht3_ericka_0029k_ckellman.jpg 3847018c-1270-4286-8583-ff663873ed70_rw_1920.jpg be7697ee-4fb3-4863-81e2-08efabd56122_rw_1200.jpg 5b0e56c644f47edaa6e10d25d9a6675f.jpg Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation Captain Ericka.jpg|"Ahoy there! Welcome! Bievenido! Willkommen! Dobro pozalovat! Huanying!" ErickaAnounces.png|Ericka welcomes the monsters, on board the Legacy cruise CaptainEricka.png|Ericka telling the monsters to have a great time on the cruise erickaapproaches.png|"You must be the one and only Dracula." 636571473323375045-HTR3-cap300.1131-lm-v1.jpg|Ericka flirting with Drac Ericka and Hydra.jpg|Ericka and the Hydra schemingericka.png|"They have no idea what's about to happen to them." Qmf99enxatzHFeoeTw4Biy3r9MBiQXCspTfTxE9wGkntPy.jpeg|Ericka spying on Drac fishsubmarine.png|Ericka's disguised submarine erickareadytofire.png|Ericka ready to open fire on Dracula... ornotfire.png|...but she get's distracted 071318hoteltrans1.jpg|Scheming Ericka cantinamidnight.png|"Cantina. Midnight. Don't be late." swagula.png|Accidentally appreciating Drac's chivelry garlicpoison.png|Ready to poison the guac! DracErickaDate.jpg|"No reason!" dinnerdate.png|Dinner Date erickaadorableandshiny.png|Ericka seeing Drac in a different light sadericka.png|Sulking the morning after her date savedyourlife.jpg|Ericka saved by Dracula tumblr_inline_pbi1h53XvU1tzszq1_1280.png|Ericka posing during the Tango of Death tumblr_peceaif63u1vy4dk3_1280.png.jpg|Drac lifting Ericka guiltyericka.png|Ericka feeling guilty in the DJ booth runningafterdrac.png|Ericka running to catch Drac caughtdracula.png|Sliding Drac to safety hangingoffacliff.png|Ericka and Drac dangling off a cliff monsterhumanlegacy.png|The beginning of a monster-human legacy bridalstyle.png|Dracula carrying Ericka theproposal.png|The proposal engaged.png|Ericka admiring her engagement ring. Promotional Photos hoteltransylvania3_7.jpg|French poster for Hotel Transylvania 3: Monster Vacation hotel-transylvania-3-summer-vacation-2018-kathryn-hahn-ericka-van-helsing.jpg|Wallpaper of Kathryn Hahn and Ericka Kathryn+Hahn+Photo+Call+Sony+Pictures+Hotel+KxW1SAzK3J8l.jpg|Kathryn Hahn posing with the Ericka mascot (Sony Pictures Studios, California) Videos HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA 3 SUMMER VACATION Official Trailer HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA 3 Movie Clip "Nice To Meet You" Trivia * Ericka can speak Spanish, German, Russian, and Chinese. ** It's possible she only knows how to welcome passengers in each language. * Ericka can perform magic tricks, as seen when she pulls a flower from her sleeve. * Concept art shows that Ericka was going to have buck-teeth similar to her great-grandfather's. * Her outfit for the cantina scene was originally planned to have red, orange, and yellow ruffled sleeves, a large red rose in her hair, and a red choker, but was changed to the sleeveless sunflower jumper. References Category:Hotel Transylvania 3 Category:Humans Category:Females Category:Characters Category:Zing Category:Antagonists Category:Villains Category:Reformed Category:Protagonists Category:Van Helsing Family Category:Hotel Transylvania Category:Featured Articles